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July 16, 2012

Author returns to share dispatches from Route 6

By Keith Gushard Meadville Tribune

CONNEAUT LAKE — For Joe Hurley, renovations to Conneaut Lake Park are a lot like his walking journey across America on Route 6 in 2004 — it’s going to take one step at a time.

Hurley, 68, of New Milford, Conn., was in Crawford County this weekend to promote the publication of the book, “Ten Million Steps on Route 6,” which he authored and photographer Travis Lindhorst photographed.

In 2004, Hurley took nine months to walk the length of Route 6 from Provincetown, Mass., to Long Beach, Calif., writing weekly columns for more than a dozen newspapers including The Meadville Tribune. His aim was to discover America’s true spirit by walking one of the nation’s longest and oldest highways.

“You have to take it one step at a time,” Hurley said to a Tribune reporter of restoration work at Conneaut Lake Park. “The people here seem like they’re up to the task.”

At his public talk Sunday afternoon at the Hotel Conneaut, Hurley lamented the loss of Lincoln Park, an amusement park along Route 6 in North Dartmouth, Mass. Once a popular tourist attraction, the story and photographs in the  book show Lincoln Park’s eerie, ramshackle condition with just skeletal remains of a few buildings and rides.

A parallel between Lincoln Park and Conneaut Lake Park can be drawn to a point. Lincoln Park had a wooden roller coaster, the Comet; while Conneaut Lake Park has its wooden roller coaster, the Blue Streak.

Hurley told the crowd of about 30 he was sorry not to see more young people in the rides area of Conneaut Lake Park on Saturday night, but there were plenty of people at the Hotel Conneaut and Beach Club areas.

“When I was young, the amusement park was where you’d go to meet people,” said Hurley. “They are renovating it bit by bit and I’m happy to see that.”

Hurley said later that he remains hopeful for the park as it still draws people with music and entertainment and has people willing to work to restore the property.

“It’s great in that you the ability to do something to restore it,” he said.

Restoration of the historic Hotel Conneaut during the last few years should help the park, he thinks.

“The hotel now is just magnificent,” said Hurley. “I love the hotel.”

As Conneaut Lake Park marks its 120th anniversary this year, extensive renovations to the Hotel Conneaut and other venues are attracting more people, according to Greg Sutterlin of Park Restoration LLC.

“Our bookings are up. We’ve had a good season so far and we’re trying to bring people back,” he said Sunday.

Park Restoration operates the hotel and Beach Club nightclub under long term leases with Trustees of Conneaut Lake Park Inc. The Trustees are the public trust established by a 2007 Crawford County Court of Common Pleas to run the amusement park.

“We’re getting wedding bookings into 2013 and 2014 now,” said Sutterlin. “We’re doing what we can to attract people. We need to be making improvement to make people return.”

Park Restoration recently gave the Trustees a proposal to get Conneaut Lake Park’s water park reopened in 2013. The water park was open briefly a  couple of years ago, but it will need extensive renovations, Sutterlin said.



 Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.

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